Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade summons Romanian Ambassador

September 6, 2017 4:30 PM

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade summoned the Romanian Ambassador on Wednesday with relation to the Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureș) school affair.

The Ministry’s Parliamentary State Secretary, Levente Magyar told reporters: The Ambassador was told that the Ministry is astounded by the fact that just one day after Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó’s visit to Bucharest, the Romanian authorities made it clear that they will be suspending the activities of the Roman Catholic Secondary School in Târgu Mureș.

Mr. Magyar also made a point of the fact that no mention of the decision was made to the Hungarian Foreign Minster during his visit to the Romanian capital.

According to the State Secretary, the decision on the school’s activities will put hundreds of Hungarian families in an impossible position just days before the start of the school year.

“Hungary regards this as an attack against the Catholic Church, the Hungarian minority, children, families and the Romanian restitution process. This is an extremely unfriendly measure on the part of Romania”, he told the press.

“The Government has decided to suspend its support of Romania’s applications for membership of various international organisations, such as the OECD, for an indefinite period despite having previously promised to do so.”, Mr. Magyar said. “The vote on Romania’s membership of the OECD will be on 8 September, and the vote of every single member country is required for membership”, he said.

He called on the neighbouring state to immediately solve the issue of Hungarian teaching in Târgu Mureș within the shortest possible time.

Mr. Magyar also declared that Hungary regards Romania as one of its strategic partners and important allies, and nothing has changed in this regard, adding that Hungary is grateful to the Romanian party for having welcomed the Hungarian Foreign Minister graciously and in a constructive atmosphere.

He also mentioned that the Romanian authorities had offered students three schools instead of the Roman Catholic secondary school, two of which are Romanian vocational schools for carpentry and architecture, meaning the majority of schoolchildren would be unable to continue their studies in their native language.

According to Mr. Magyar, in recent months Romania has promised to solve the issue on several occasions. “We feel deceived”, he said, adding that hundreds of children and parents have also been deceived.

The State Secretary criticised the fact that Romania had not listened to the numerous solutions put forward by, amongst others, Hungarian interests groups, and had simply “swept them off the table”.

Mr. Magyar also objected to the fact that parents had been intimidated.